Selfishness is a thing of humans, is a thing of nature. Inequality and competition are as well. And as we slowly enter the age of artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, and transhumanism, there are lots of hopes and concerns to be had. I say
slowly because it often seems that "analysts" exaggerate how soon it'll take for new technologies; I remember hearing that by 2018 everyone would be having self-driving cars and currently only a few people actually have them. That's not to say such technologies won't become commonplace; it's just that the optimistic mean in suits can get a little too excited about life-changing technology, not that I blame them. I just believe that these technologies will take a good deal longer than popularly reported to come to fruition Now, although I actually don't really care about the topic of transhumanism, I do agree that like artificial intelligence it can help make or break humanity, and it's impossible to tell what it's outcome will be.
Despite still being a gruesome place, more people live in luxury then ever, largely thanks to capitalism and new technology. As much inequality as there is, for the first time in history a ten-year-old can have a supercomputer in their pocket and access the interminable library that is the Internet virtually any time. Yes it's only a small part of humanity but at least not everyone is starving now. Perhaps it is all temporary and the world is heading towards wastelandville, but still I and millions of others get to lead luxurious lives that someone just a hundred years ago couldn't even imagine. I can't believe that Mickey Mouse recently turned 90; Steamboat Wille wasn't THAT long ago in the grand scheme of things. Anyways, technologies such as the Internet, smartphones, and just improving medical technology and quality of life in general have improved our lives in countless ways. Technologies such as transhumanism and artificial intelligence can very well do the same and also help bring more people out of poverty as capitalism-hated mostly by both those who benefit from it and those who suffer from it-itself continues to do.
But transhumanism and other such next-level technologies are real game changers. What's interesting about saying that is that the current state of the Internet has itself been a big game changer. Yes in 2008 the Internet was common but in 2018 it's absolutely dominative and we've benefited massively from it. Yes we have people always looking at their phones and tribalism but has humanity not always been tribalistic and recently what's mostly happened is actually just such an ancient behavior recently hidden in more secular ways and the social media age has perhaps just gotten us to become aware of how closed-minded and opinionated humans can be? With transhumanism it could just be a similar situation. Note how I said
could. The late Stephen Hawking warned humanity about the dangers of artificial intelligence, and although transhumanism is about humans becoming machines rather than machines becoming smart, concerns expressed by such a brilliant man who did so much for humanity can also perhaps apply to transhumanism. The thing is, these technologies are
vastly unpredictable. Transhumanism could maybe either turn the world into a utopia or dystopia. No one can say for sure. We'll just wait and see.
I certainly won't be the first person to line up for mind and body enhancement chips/implants but if there's someone stuck in a wheelchair or suffering from anxiety or PTSD I would happily watch them be freed from their disabilities causing so much unnecessary suffering like magic, and if I have the money, perhaps pay someone to do be able to do so. But again what if only rich people can afford such? I don't mean to demonize rich people, those college girls who rave about the evils of the upper class would probably commit genocide the moment they gain power, but humans naturally are selfish, that's just how nature can be. A dystopian scenario where the rich are transhumanist supermachines and everyone else are starving in their flesh prisons could occur. And so could the standard of living skyrocketing and our current time period being seen as we see the nineteenth century. Either could happen, but both scenarios are two extremes and realistically the outcome will probably be between the two, but which side it leans more towards remains to be seen.
Currently increasingly deadly military weapons are being produced and people rightfully fear killer robots, but transhumanist itself could end up bringing either destruction, or peace. We'll see. Those who advocate transhumanism will bring it eventually. Not least because they're smart people who often create the amazing technology the naysayers themselves use to criticize their ambitions. Although I have mixed thoughts about it and I'm perfectly fine with my current body, and I also see some as being too optimistic about it, it
will happen someday in many ways on it's own, and the results of such will play out with time. If the results are disastrous then those who helped bring transhumanism about will be scapegoats for something bound to happen with gradually improving technology. The advocates of transhumanism can get a little preachy about it, but I can see their compassion.
And of course if you hate transhumanism, the rest of the world will go on. Whether it will cause humanity to sink or swim, the general populace and especially young people will of course adopt it as it slowly becomes more mainstream. Elaborating on what I said in the beginning it often seems enthusiastic promoters of super technologies make it sound like they'll just pop up and then be everywhere, but of course it'll be a gradual process. You can find new articles about advancements with transhumanist, artificial intelligence, anti-aging techniques, and virtual reality all the time. Gradually such technologies will come into our lives, and like with social networking it'll come slowly over time and eventually all the hip college kids will be taking pills so they'll never get old and gross and only if you stop and look you'll notice such trends coming in as the new technologies come gradually. If transhumanism has a more positive outcome perhaps people will look back on the naysayers of today like the people prosecuting scientists in the Dark Ages. And speaking of Dark Ages thinking, although there are plenty of legitimate concern about transhumanism and other technologies such as a severe lack of safety testing, most articles I've seen criticizing transhumanism online come from religious people; eliminating poverty and suffering and bringing humanity together and authentic morality are of course seen as destructive to them, and they are acting as expected. (By this I mean such technologies go against their simple-minded beliefs rather than genuine concern about the dangers of such technologies.) But regardless of what you think of transhumanism, gradually it will happen, and someday all the cool kids will be into it.
Anyways, those are my interesting thoughts on a topic I have little interest in. Thanks for reading!
